Crystal Observations
by Cassandra Mulder
Summary: Sometimes an outsider looking in can see things the people involved can't.


Title: Crystal Observations  
  
Author: Cassandra Mulder  
  
E-mail: dana_mulder32@yahoo.com  
  
Rating: PG  
  
Spoilers: None  
  
Classification: Outsider POV; MSR  
  
Disclaimer: Rachelle Whitley is my creation, and the rest, as usual, belongs to surfer dude Chris Carter, Ten Thirteen Productions, and 20th Century FOX. Can you all live with that? Wish I could!  
  
Summary: Sometimes an outsider looking in can see things the people involved can't.  
  
Author's Notes: This is the result of my urge to do something a little different. It's probably not my best work, but I thought I'd give it a shot. I'll try anything once. Well, almost anything. And yes, for those who know me, Rachelle *is* my middle name, and I'm not ashamed that it's mine and I used it! LOL How often do you hear that name anyway? Cassandra's already taken in the X-Files you know. :)  
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No wonder practically the entire F.B.I. gossips about them. They give everybody plenty of reason. It's not a bad thing though. I think they're cute.  
  
Dana and I have talked quite a few times, and Fox will give me the occasional smile and mumbled "hello" when we pass each other. If Dana didn't so clearly have him wrapped around her little finger, I would've been after him quite some time ago. But I think they belonged to each other a long time before I got here, and that's not how I operate.  
  
Good for Dana Scully, too bad for me. I, Rachelle Whitley, at the age of thirty-two, am pretty sure that I'm never going to find a man that looks at me the way Fox looks at her. I'm not saying it couldn't happen, it's just becoming more and more unlikely.  
  
I first met them about a year ago, and liked both of them right away.   
  
My first impression of Dana was that she was quiet, professional, but I saw a kindness in her blue eyes. Red hair was our first common ground, and the more we ran into each other, the more she warmed up to me. I found that we were both Navy brats as well, but that's where the similarities ended. She was about four inches shorter than me, and had a medical degree.  
  
I'm in criminal psychology.  
  
Maybe that's why I had no problem hitting it off with Fox. I wasn't afraid of him despite the fact that, well, let's just say his reputation proceeded him. When I thought "Spooky" I just never pictured *him*. He was instantly charming and witty, and I instantly had a crush.  
  
Frankly, I wondered why he got made fun of so much. But that tends to happen to those precious few people who dare to think outside the box. And he tends to think *way* outside the box from what I hear.  
  
I worked with them briefly on a case six months ago, and what amazed me the most is that though they disagreed quite often, they *listened* to each other. Their body language alone told me there was a deep, abiding trust between the two of them.  
  
I began to suspect that they were a couple, maybe even married. They consistently clicked better than all the married couples I know put together.  
  
A later conversation with Dana laid those suspicions to rest.  
  
"So, are you and Fox, you know?" I asked quite eloquently. For a question I'd been trying to ask her for a week, I didn't have it thought out very well. I sounded like a fourteen year old girl at a slumber party.  
  
She just smiled at me slightly, like the question was old hat, and said "No" with what I swear was a wistful sigh.  
  
I could relate. Dana wanted what I and a million other single, professional women in their thirties want. One day your career isn't everything anymore, your bed's big, cold, and empty, and your cat is not the warm body you want to curl up next to. Fox was the one she wanted to curl up next to, I could see it in her eyes. I can't say that I blame her.  
  
I've been in the Bureau for years, and I've seen it happen so many times that you have to wonder why there's not a rule against male/female partnering. It seems it would save a lot of people a lot of heartache and pain. Not to mention the should we/shouldn't we conflict that comes before.  
  
No matter how conflicted Fox and Dana may be, at least they have each other. Maybe not romantically, but they have each other regardless. I guess they're just lucky that way.  
  
Fin 


End file.
